Journalism awards for Hindustan Times reporters

The third edition of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence In Journalism Awards, held in the Capital on Monday, recognised the brilliant work of 29 television and print media journalists across 25 categories. Three Hindustan Times journalists — Neelesh Misra, Nagendar Sharma and Sayli Udas Mankikar — were among the winners chosen for the award.

<b1>P Sainath of the The Hindu and Karan Thapar, veterans in the field of print and broadcast journalism, respectively, were conferred the top honours in the category Journalist of the Year.

Misra and Sharma were awarded in the 'Uncovering India Invisible' category (Print) for spearheading a nine-part national series on insurgency called "India Besieged".

Mankikar's extensive reportage of the shrinking open spaces in Mumbai got her the Prakash Kardaley Memorial Award for Civic Journalism. Misra was also nominated for the 'Reporting from Jammu and Kashmir' award.

Congratulating the winners, Balakrishnan emphasised upon the responsibility of the media to report news fairly. "The media has the commensurate responsibility to present news accurately," he said.

The awards ceremony was followed by a media debate on 'The blurring divide between politics and journalism'. Barkha Dutt, group editor, NDTV, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, spokesperson of the Congress party, Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Express Group, Sainath and Bhartia were among the participants.